Milos Raonic says he was fairly pleased with how he played at Queen's Club, but he knows that if he has any chance of winning Wimbledon, he’ll have to bear down.
Raonic was up 3-0 in the second set against Andy Murray in the final, but the Scot stepped it up late to win, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3.
Despite having a lead, the world No. 7 anticipated that Murray would lift his game.
“I was expecting that," said Raonic. "And then obviously things sort of get going. And [Murray] did a good job getting things going ... I started to hesitate a little bit. And these top guys are quite dangerous when they start feeling comfortable. It's about making them feel as uncomfortable as possible. I did that for quite a bit of time at the start and then I let him get into the match a little bit too much.”
Murray improved his career record to 7-4 against Raonic. The Canadian won four of his first six matches against the world No. 2, with victories in Barcelona, Toronto and Tokyo in 2012 and in Indian Wells in 2014. But the 29-year-old has rattled off five straight against Raonic, beating him at the World Tour Finals in 2014, in Madrid in 2015, and at the Australian Open, in Monte Carlo and at Queen’s Club this year.
The 25-year-old had a strong season on hard courts. He upset Roger Federer in the Brisbane final, reached the semis at the Australian Open and made it to the final in Indian Wells, where he lost badly to Novak Djokovic.
The powerful Canadian believes that he has what it takes to make a deep run at Wimbledon.
“I think I'm doing a lot of things much better than I have ever done on this surface, that's for sure,” he said. “…I have improved each match this week ... I'm going to have some time now, really, first to recover myself and get myself fresh and ready to go, and then also look to improve on other aspects where I think I can do better."
Raonic is working with John McEnroe during the grass season, and is also regularly coached by former world No. 1 Carlos Moya. He is training with McEnroe in this week before Wimbledon.
“[McEnroe] and I agreed that he would help me all the way through this,” Raonic said, “and try to make the most and make a good push in the coming weeks.”